First outing as skipper makes it clear that Stokes will do things his way

More to new England captain than his tough-guy persona

- Will Macpherson

ON Ben Stokes’s first day as England captain, it was abundantly clear that he would be doing the job in his own, unique style.

His day, rightly, started with the short trip from his home in County Durham to the ground where he made his name, the Riverside, not Lord’s, where so many of his predecessors have been unveiled. A trip there can wait a month.

He then changed into a tracksuit, rather than the blazer that he will wear to toss up against New Zealand four weeks tomorrow.

And in his very first interview, for a behind-the-scenes feature on the ECB’s Instagram page, he said: “This is my first day on the job… apparently I’ve got to do this kind of stuff now, so you’ll be following me around while I’m doing my media.”

Stokes has never been a cricketer — or, indeed, character — shackled by the weight of history and precedent. That was on show in his next interview, with the BBC, when he provided a reminder that comparisons with Ian Botham and Andrew Flintoff have followed him around since his teens, and had not bothered him once.

He is not about to change that now he has assumed the one job these other talismanic, charismatic all-rounders could not quite manage.

If the obvious comparisons are with Beef and Fred, Stokes is a bit different to the two captains he played under, Alastair Cook and Joe Root. Their trajectory through life, as long-anointed future England captains, had been pretty smooth. Reaching the captaincy was a dream realised, and a long term awaited them.